THE DYNAMICS OF BEST MANUFACTURING PRACTICES

In order to stay competitive manufacturing companies continuously need to
search for and implement best practices to improve their performance.
Although the literature might suggest so, best practices are not a static set of
improvement actions. On the contrary, as a majority of companies have
implemented former best practices, one can expect that these lose their status
and are replaced by new best practices.
Analyzing data from 677 companies, this paper aims to shed light on the
development and dynamics of best practices in manufacturing. Our findings
suggest that integration of NPD and manufacturing, and improving
manufacturing process maintain their status as best practices, while
servitization and supply chain management are new best practices.
Globalization and responsibility are proposed as promising practices, and
technology is suggested as a qualifying practice.